-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The ideal of childhood , and the protection of its innocence , is a central pillar of both our morality and our legal code . There is , therefore , little that shocks and outrages us more than crimes by adults against children .

Unfortunately , we have much to be shocked and outraged about . There have , for example , been a number of recent pedophile criminal cases inside the Catholic church and at universities like Pennsylvania University . And in the Congo , the crimes against children by the warlord Joseph Kony triggered KONY 2012 -- an online crusade made up of mostly children against Kony 's abuse of children .

What is KONY 2012 ?

The last couple of weeks have brought us two more disturbingly high-profile criminal cases against children .

First there was the failed attempt by the medieval Pakistani Taliban to kill the 14-year-old education activist and BBC blogger Malala Yousufzai . And now there are the lurid accusations against the BBC celebrity Jimmy Savile , who is alleged to have sexually abused children .

These grotesque crimes may have been separated by several decades and by thousands of miles , but they have one thing in common . Both the Pakistani Taliban and Jimmy Savile sought to destroy the innocence of youth . Savile is accused of treating children as if they had adult bodies and sexual appetites , while the Taliban attempt to murder Malala Yousufzai was driven by their rejection of the idea of education for girls and thus , in a sense , of the very idea of childhood itself .

But Malala , who is now recovering from the assassination attempt at an English hospital , shares our modern conception of childhood . `` I have the right of education , '' she told CNN . `` I have the right to play . I have the right to sing . I have the right to talk . I have the right to go to market . I have the right to speak up . ''

What Malala is claiming is the right to an autonomous childhood , the right to transform herself from an innocent child to a knowing adult -- and to be let alone by the adult world in this journey . This right is mirrored by the experience of Jimmy Savile 's alleged victims , whose innocent childhoods were ruined by their exposure to his criminal adult appetites .

A Taliban spokesman said of the attack on Malala : `` She has become a symbol of Western culture in the area . She was openly propagating it . Let this be a lesson . ''

The Taliban , with their rejection of the very idea of childhood , are of course wrong . But the Malala case does indeed offer us a `` lesson . '' Yes , we should all be horrified by this appalling crime against a 14-year-old Pakistani girl from the Swat Valley , but I fear that , in our idealization of childhood and in our acute sensitivity to the innocence of brave young girls like Malala , we are ourselves vulnerable to transforming children into celebrity martyrs -- modern day versions of Joan of Arc .

This happened with KONY 2012 , a movement akin , as I wrote earlier this year , to a children 's crusade . And Malala , who was nominated for the 2011 International Children 's Peace Prize , is herself in danger of becoming a symbol of injustice exploited by everyone from UNICEF to Madonna and CNN itself .

So how did this happen ? Unfortunately , Malala was allowed , by her family , by many Pakistanis and by the media to become a spokesman against the Taliban . The well-meaning BBC is partially to blame here , for giving her a highly visible blog that would inevitably attract Taliban ire .

Malala 's equally well-meaning father holds some responsibility too , for allowing his daughter to become so vulnerable -- as does the world 's media for transforming the teenager into a global celebrity .

Our ideal of childhood is rooted in allowing children to being let alone by the adult world to develop themselves . We need adults to fight their political battles -- to have prosecuted Jimmy Savile , to hunt down Joseph Kony , to fight the Pakistan Taliban . Let 's remember that children are , in every sense , innocent and thus should n't be encouraged to become the foot soldiers in the battle against their own exploitation .

The story of Malala Yousufzai should be seen as both an inspiration and a warning .

CNN is currently encouraging its readers to send messages to Malala . My message to her is twofold . Firstly , I dearly hope that you recover quickly from your wounds . And secondly , once you recover , I hope you 'll be able to go back to the privacy of your childhood , to simply being Malala rather than a global celebrity whose image is owned by other people .

-LRB- The BBC addressed its connection with Malala Yousufzai on its blog called The Editors , and you can read it by following the link here -RRB- .

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Andrew Keen .

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The ideal of childhood is a central pillar of both our morality and our legal code , Keen says

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Keen : Last few weeks brought two more high-profile criminal cases against children

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Unfortunately , Malala was allowed to become a spokesman against the Taliban , he says

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Our ideal of childhood is rooted in allowing children to develop themselves , Keen says